


how i picture the bl3 dlc unfolding

by ztd



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 16:05:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18264734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ztd/pseuds/ztd
Summary: not even halfway done but i wanted to post it before the official bl3 announcement





	how i picture the bl3 dlc unfolding

Lilith had gathered all six of them. She never gathered all six of them. She sent Krieg and Maya to deal with the big groups, bandits that threatened the safety of their little city in the sky. She sent Axton and Gaige to collect things, people and artifacts from far off planets, and she sent Zer0 and Salvador to deal with the big guys, the Terras, and the Vermis. Gathering them all like this seemed like overkill, to say the least.  
Salvador picked at his ear absentmindedly as they walked in. Tannis was nowhere to be seen, absent from her usual post downstairs. The air, normally filled with her bumblings about Eridians and vaults and bacon was replaced by Krieg bellowing his usual nonsense, eliciting little giggles from Maya and eyebrow waggling from Gaige.  
Lilith looked tired when the group saw her, pouring over maps and data, a hologram of some kind of… something projected before her. Her usually firey yellow eyes were dulled and grey. The last year had certainly taken a toll on her. The ordeal with Jack was one thing, but Helios crashing brought a slew of new problems to Sanctuary.  
It was Krieg that got her attention, shouting as quietly as he could (which was still quite loud, unsurprisingly,) despite the good-natured shushing from Gaige. She looked up at them, a smile plastered on her lips but her exhaustion showed through. Lilith was fantastic at melting someone’s brains, making them spill out of some unlucky bandit’s ears and nose with her Phasewalk, but she’d never quite gotten the hang of.. Y’know… not working herself to death.  
“You’re early.” She said, voice edging on hoarseness.  
“It sounded urgent,” Zer0 replied. “You needed all six of us, that’s unusual.” Lilith chuckled.  
“Have you two gone to Promethea yet?” she asked, eyes pointing to Gaige and Axton, who looked at each other briefly, recounting their various expeditions to other planets.  
“No, ma’am.” Axton said, turning back to face the Firehawk. “Furthest we’ve gone is Aquator.” Gaige nodded.  
“You don’t need to use the Lost Legion talk with me, Ax.” Lilith drawled. “There’s a distress signal coming from out there. Somebody must have salvaged some old Atlas tech and sent it with that, the signal was through an old ad for ENGORGE.”  
“Atlas?” Maya said, cocking a hip and an eyebrow. “They’re still around?” Lilith shrugged, pulling up the signal on her ECHO.  
“I was just as surprised as you, didn’t think they’d want to be near the frontier planets after..” She cleared her throat. Helga Steele’s shriek of pain as the Destroyer pierced her stomach still echoed in her mind after.. What, 5 years? Maya felt it too. What had Steele’s phase ability even been, anyway? “You know.” Lilith finished her thought, looking back to her endless research.  
“We goin’ up there?” Salvador asked. “Why all of us? Ax and Gaige do this stuff all the time.” He said, excitement behind his grumble.  
Lilith chuckled. “You got it. I need you to see what the distress signal is, who it’s coming from. If it seems sketchy you can kill ‘em, but if this has something to do with that.. War thingy I want to know about it.” The image of the alien that had stopped her from killing Athena made her shiver. The way she stopped those bullets in mid-air sent something cold down Lilith’s spine.  
“But why all of us?” Gaige asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion. “I’d think Zer0 could take care of this on their own.” Zer0’s helmet projected a red, holographic smiley face.  
“Promethea,” Lilith answered, still looking over her maps, “Is a dangerous place. Makes Pandora look like paradise.”  
“I remember..” Maya piped up. “There were fliers all over Opportunity.” She wondered how the gleaming city was doing now that Helios had crashed into Pandora. Those ‘Children of Helios’ idiots had probably invaded by now. “There are children on Promethea who can’t afford ammo, or something.”  
“Swear I’ve heard that before..”Axton mumbled, thumbing the blue and green sniper rifle at his side.  
“I’d go by myself..” Lilith said, looking back up at her vault hunters.She trailed off, but she didn’t need to finish. Promethea was Roland’s home planet, Maya knew why she couldn’t bring herself to head up there. Not yet, anyway. “I don’t know if I’m up to it.”  
“That is quite alright.” Zer0 said, clasping their three-fingered hands together in reassurance. “We will take care of this job. Don’t worry yourself.” Lilith smiled, mustering as much confidence as she possibly could.  
“THE LANKY ALIEN SCREAMS WHAT I FEEL!” Krieg shouted, making Lilith wince, but her smile was still in tact. “I’M HERE TO SHANK AND SMILE! GOOD TIME, NOT LONG TIME!”  
Maya chuckled. Zer0 projected a “<3” from their mask. Salvador barked a laugh.  
“I take it you’re up for the job?” Lilith asked, with a grin. Maya smiled back, confident and sure.  
“Of course.”  
“Duh!” Gaige exclaimed in an excited lilt. “Me and Ax love seeing the new planets you send us to!” She held out her metal hand for a high five. Axton obliged.  
“It’s true.” He said. “The planet that Aurelia chick was on sure was pretty.”  
“Happy to help!” Sal nearly yelled, his hands already reaching for his Grog and his Harold.  
“Performing this job,” Zer0 said. “Will not be an easy task.” Their haiku was interrupted by Krieg screaming his excitement in the words ‘NIPPLE SALADS!’  
“But of course, we’ll try.”

“Would you sit still?” Fiona barked. “You’re getting it all over your fingers!” Maybe whipping out the blue nail polish hadn’t been such a great idea. If he got it on his obscenely expensive and brand new, mind you, suit she’d never hear the end of it.  
“That’s not my fault!” Rhys retorted, his voice just shy of whining. “It’s too liquidy!” Fiona rolled her eyes at that.  
“That’s all nail polish, dumbass!” She scoffed. “I’m sure you got your nails done at least once on Helios.”  
“I had them buffed, thank you very much.” Rhys said, proverbial nose in the proverbial air.  
“Whatever,” She huffed, pretending she knew what that meant, “If you get my nail polish on your suit don’t blame me.”  
“You’re an asshole,” he said, shaking his flesh hand vigorously in an attempt to make the varnish dry faster. Did the air on Promethea even work like that?  
“Don’t you have a fan in that arm of yours?” Fiona said.  
“Your mom has a fan in that arm of yours.” He replied, continuing to flap his human hand around.  
“Good one.” Fiona replied, smooth.  
“Thank you.” If only Vaughn had been there to give him a high five.  
“Especially when you consider a rabid stalker killed my mom when I was 5 ½” Rhys winced at that. Maybe that joke was in poor taste…  
“Shit.” He said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry, Fi.” She didn’t look at him, she sat and examined her nails and their new paint job. The old one was chipped to hell and back, anyway.  
“Don’t do that,” Fiona snapped. Shit, Rhys really had struck a nerve. Oh no, what was she going to do to him? “You’ll smudge your nails.” He brought his hand to his side quickly.  
“Sorry.” He said, quieter. She didn’t say a word. They sat like that for a while, Fiona sitting, chin resting on her knees and admiring her paint job. Rhys sat silently, waiting for the electric blue polish to dry. He cleared his throat.  
“I never pegged you as the type to count half birthdays.”  
“You learn something new every day.”  
Her words led into another silence, slightly more comfortable than the last one but by no means not awkward. Rhys shifted his position, slightly, the rustle of his clothes strangely loud against the quiet air.  
“Why do you carry this stuff around with you?” He asked, cautious. He couldn’t deal with an angry Fiona right now. “Can’t see it being necessary in a con. Or vault hunting.” She shrugged.  
“Sasha and I like to do our nails, that’s all.” She said, emotion undetectable in her voice. “We don’t stay in one place often, so we keep it with us.”  
“Oh” Rhys said, flatly. “Psshshhh, yeah totally.”  
“I have red too. If you want.”  
“Nah..” Rhys said, staring down at his flesh hand. “I like the blue.”


End file.
